If you own your own business and you’ve had a mortgage lender ask for a mortgage comfort letter from your CPA? You need to proceed cautiously. The reason? Often, these letters ask your CPA or CPA firm to either break state accountancy law. Or require your CPA to violate professional standards. What Lender Wants from […]
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Using Pass-through-entity Tax Election
You maybe know this. But under current federal tax law, your itemized deduction for state and local taxes gets limited. That limit? $10,000. For example, say you own a home and pay $10,000 of property taxes. And then also say you earn income in a state that taxes income and pay $20,000 of state income […]
Washington State Estate Tax Planning Tactics
Usually you want to get your estate tax planning advice from an attorney. But it’s often helpful to understand beforehand some of the basic tactics available. An upfront understanding better prepares you to talk with an attorney. And then beyond that point? With some basic information, you may also be able do some thinking. Even […]
Washington State Estate Tax Return: When to File and Pay Taxes
Many people’s estates don’t file a federal, estate-tax tax return. The filing thresholds are huge. In 2023, for example, your gross estate needs to exceed $12,920,000 before your executor or personal representative needs to file a federal Form 706 and potentially pay estate taxes. Washington state, unfortunately, sets a far lower filing threshold. And many […]
Avoiding Biden Tax Increases on Small Corporations
Right now, no one knows whether President Biden’s business tax proposals will become law. Which means planning for any changes is tricky. Yet the proposed tax laws change vast parts of the Internal Revenue Code. Especially for entrepreneurs and active investors. And then the real issue here: By the time we do know all the […]
WA Cares Fund and Small Business
Starting in 2022, most Washington state employees pay a new WA Cares Fund payroll tax. That new payroll tax supports a new long-term care insurance plan. Which sounds good. But the new tax will cost some workers large amounts of tax. And then this planning reality: people often can wriggle out of the tax. Accordingly, […]
Washington State Capital Gains Tax Planning
In the spring of 2021, Washington State enacted a 7 percent capital gains tax on some taxpayers’ long-term capital gains starting in 2022. A short time after the capital gains tax became law, a lower court ruled the statute unconstitutional. That decision muddied the waters. But on March 24, 2023, the Washington State Supreme Court […]
Covid-19 Relocations and Your Tax Return
If due to the Covid-19 pandemic, you moved out of your usual neighborhood or community, that move may impact your taxes. You may get some travel-related deductions in some special cases, for example. But you may also find yourself paying new state and local income taxes. Accordingly, you want to understand—at least in a general […]
Covid-19 Home Office Deductions
The Covid-19 pandemic pushed many to work from home. And that reality begs an obvious question: Do any of these people get a Covid-19 home office deduction? In many cases, the answer is “yes.” But the rules get tricky… The Home Office Deduction in a Nutshell Section 280A(c)(1) of the Internal Revenue Code creates the […]
Simple Trust Tax Planning Ideas Can Save Big Dollars
Many taxpayers understand—at least in a general way—how individual tax returns work. Someone earns or receives income. The taxpayer gets some deductions. Often including a big “standard deduction” that means someone doesn’t pay income taxes on the first $12,000 or $24,000 of income. And then the tax rates paid? A familiar set of percentages. Often […]